Appointment of the new Head of the Anticipation Hub 

The Anticipation Hub is delighted to announce the appointment of Kara Devonna Siahaan as the new Head of the Anticipation Hub starting from September 1st.  Alexandra Rüth is now transitioning to a role at the German Red Cross as the Head of Knowledge and Innovation Department but will remain very closely connected to the Anticipation Hub and its community of partners and users. 

Kara is well known to many of you from her role as IFRC’s Early Action and Disaster Risk Financing Coordinator and the Hub’s Lead for Policy and Network. She has been instrumental in the establishment and the strategic development of the Hub since its early days. Alongside her accomplishments in driving the anticipation agenda forward, Kara brings with her over 15 years of progressive experience in advising, managing and leading disaster response, risk reduction and climate change adaptation programmes and initiatives for the Red Cross Red Crescent network, UN and government organizations from country to global level. Without a doubt her commitment, extensive experience and background will play a strong role in facilitating the further growth and development of the Anticipation Hub.  

To learn more about Kara and her aspirations for the Anticipation Hub, Alexandra took the opportunity to ask her a few questions.  

For the last 5 years, I’ve had the privilege to engage in technical assistance, coordination, strategy, and policy developments of anticipatory action. Looking back, I remain amazed at how fast and steadily we have progressed as a community of practitioners, scientists, and policy makers on this topic. There has been so much innovation and learning gathered through the support of a growing base of expertise that can be tapped into and used to match the rising demands of governments, organizations, and people to act ahead of crises. 

I believe the Anticipation Hub can uniquely cater to that need to capture and disseminate knowledge, evidence, and guidance in a systematic, inclusive, equitable and accessible way. I am humbled and honoured to have the opportunity to offer my knowledge and experience to serve the anticipatory action community in our collective efforts to scale up anticipatory action as the Head of the Anticipation Hub. 

It is encouraging to see the growing number of anticipatory action projects implemented by humanitarian organizations. We’ve seen successful inter-agency collaborations where resources and know-how are shared to expand the delivery of assistance and reach more people ahead of disasters. Yet we know that climate and development actors have huge roles to play in scaling up and mainstreaming anticipatory action through their support in strengthening institutional capacities, early warning systems, disaster risk financing and legal frameworks. We must remain diligent in building and applying evidence gathered by the research community to continuously improve implementation and inform policies. It is important to engage with the “unusual suspects” such as those from financial and private sectors to further explore collaborations that have the potential to expand our anticipation agenda. Clearly, I am most excited about guiding the Hub to play the role in building bridges and breaking siloes across sectors.

I look very much forward to working with the 21 team members from German Red Cross, IFRC and the Climate Centre spread out across 12 countries and our 80 diverse partners, to implement what our slogan says: “Do more. Do it better. Do it together”   

I firmly believe in the Anticipation Hub’s vision of a world where the impact of disasters is reduced through anticipatory action. My “dream” is for the Hub to continue being a fit-for-purpose, trusted and accountable platform to transform that vision into everyday realities by enabling all actors – from local to global – to use the knowledge and services provided by the Hub to develop concrete actions to protect people who are most at risk around the world.

I invite everyone to read the Anticipation Hub’s Three-Year Strategy to learn about how – with your support – we can achieve this! 

The Anticipation Hub coordination team warmly welcomes Kara to her new role to transform her ambition and dream for the Anticipation Hub into reality. There is a dynamic and exciting road ahead for the Anticipation Hub and we are very happy to have Kara lead us on this journey.   

Our Governance

For more information on our Anticipation Hub coordination team please visit Our Governance section.